Industry's Largest Lineup of Car Audio MCUs Considerably Reduces System Development Costs and Time

KAWASAKI, Japan, SANTA CLARA, Calif. and DUSSELDORF, Germany, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NEC Electronics Corp. , a leading semiconductor solutions provider, and its subsidiaries in the United States and Europe, NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, today announced an addition to their industry-leading microcontroller (MCU) lineup targeting automotive audio control. The new 32-bit V850ES/Sx3(TM) MCUs feature large-capacity flash memory, up to one megabyte (MB), and are based on the same 32-bit architecture as the company's popular V850ES(TM) devices. The common architecture allows for compatibility among software, software development tools and system testing tools throughout the product line. This compatibility enables manufacturers already using many of the previous generations of NEC Electronics' automotive MCUs to significantly reduce their system development time and costs.

As advances in equipment for car audio applications continue to increase, car audio manufacturers are demanding semiconductors that will allow them to develop a variety of systems as quickly and easily as possible. The new 32-bit V850ES/Sx3 MCUs from NEC Electronics satisfy these demands by providing application-optimized, reliable products that can significantly reduce development times for car audio manufacturers and give automotive consumers a richer audio experience.

The V850ES/Sx3 32-bit MCUs are available in two subseries: the V850ES/SJ3(TM) and V850ES/SG3(TM). The MCUs feature flash memory capacities ranging from 256 kilobytes (KB) to 1 megabyte (MB).one of the industry's largest capacities for on-chip flash memory in MCUs. The increased amounts of available flash memory allow designers to write large amounts of software to internal memory to support additional functionality. This flexibility in memory size enables engineers to design software-differentiated product models on the same MCU.

All of the new devices use the NEC Electronics 32-MHz V850ES CPU core and are pin and software compatible with the existing V850ES/SJ2(TM) and V850ES/SG2(TM) MCUs. The V850ES/SJ3 MCU features 144 pins, while the V850ES/SG3 MCU features 100 pins. Both products support the in-car controller area network (CAN) standard to allow high-speed data transfer, and both also boast strong resistance to EMI noise for increased audio fidelity.

Samples of the V850ES/SJ3 and V850ES/SG3 32-bit MCUs are available now. Mass production is scheduled to start in October 2006 with a monthly production projection of one million units. Availability is subject to change.

NOTE: NEC Electronics, NEC Electronics America and NEC Electronics (Europe), V850ES/Sx3, V850ES, V850ES/SG3, V850ES/SJ3, V850ES/SG2 and V850E/SJ2 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of NEC Electronics Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are property of their respective owners.